


Connect the Dots

by sarcastic_fi



Series: The Secret (Family) Life of John Sheppard [7]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-17
Updated: 2012-04-17
Packaged: 2017-11-03 20:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/385572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastic_fi/pseuds/sarcastic_fi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney isn't just a pretty face, but sometimes it takes a while to connect the dots</p>
            </blockquote>





	Connect the Dots

Rodney McKay has numerous certificates, prizes, medals and awards that prove just how significantly more intelligent he was than 99.9999% of the population of America, however it takes him over a year to connect the dots and reach the obvious conclusion.

 

‘Dot’ one; John is Air Force

‘Dot’ two; Samantha Carter is Air Force

‘Dot’ three; Sam visited him a week before John left

‘Dot’ four…; Having children killed brain cells

 

Samantha had visited him a week before John had left, and while Rodney would like to believe it was because Sam had finally come to her senses and realised what a catch Rodney was (or at least that he was more intelligent than her), the bunch of paper work that consisted of three separate Confidentiality contracts that she handed to him would indicate otherwise.

 

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Rodney had bitched, keeping one eye on Cash as he chewed the flat end of a wooden spoon. Rodney had wanted to take the spoon away from the toddler, John however insisted that it was unlikely the wood would splinter and that even if it did, it would be a good lesson for Cash to learn. Rodney however wondered how getting a splinter in your inner cheek could ever be a good thing and still fretted whenever Cash stuck the cooking implement in his mouth.

 

“Sign it, McKay, I would have thought someone of your supposed superior intelligence would already have figured that out,” Sam bit back at him, although not in a nasty way. She was currently sat at Rodney’s kitchen table with Misha in her lap, stroking the littlest McKay’s soft blond hair as he gurgled happily.

 

“Of course I know that. Just… what if I refuse?” He asked, just to be stubborn, and also because he was hoping she would give some sort of clue away in her explanations before he signed his god damn life away to the American Air Force.

 

“If you don’t then you’ll miss out on the biggest scientific discovery since… well, since nothing. There is nothing out there that is this amazing, this mind blowing. Are you really going to pass that up?” Sam challenged him.

 

“Say I do sign it. What then? Will I be able to work from home?” Rodney asked, having found that there was nothing quite like being able to work from the comfort of his own house when he had three children under six years to take care of.

 

Sam looked stricken for a moment, “I… uh… No. Not really. In fact, you’d have to leave the country,” she sounded vaguely apologetic as she said this. From where she sat on the floor – playing with a Polly Pocket and a toy helicopter – Meredith looked up, her face unhappy. 

 

“Leave the country? Where? Siberia?” Rodney asked suspiciously.

 

“Further. Look, McKay, I can’t say where. But where the science is… let’s just say it’s not very child friendly,” Sam said, trying to phrase it diplomatically.

 

Rodney looks at Meredith’s curious and unhappy face, her blonde hair held in place by pink Barbie clips that Jeannie had brought her for her last birthday. The he looks at Cash, with John’s uncontrollable brown hair and the McKay blue eyes, there was no way that he or Misha, who was staring at Rodney with an expression of blank innocence – could understand what Sam was suggesting here, but they seemed adversely affected by the tensions in the air. Maybe six years ago, before he had understood what it was to hold a baby in his arms and feel like he was their whole world, maybe then he would have agreed without taking a second to think about the consequences. Now, however, he had to refuse without thinking about the consequences, because he knew that if he understood the full ramifications of what he was turning down he would feel torn, and Rodney didn’t want to end up resenting his children for preventing him from being there as the laws of physics were re-written. So he made a vow in his mind to never put science in front of his children, and told Sam thanks, but no thanks.

 

“You’ll call me if a position closer to home comes up?” Rodney asked as Sam got into her car, an expression of faint regret on her face even as she had an overwhelming burst of affection and pride that Rodney would give up science (his first true love) for changing nappies and re-reading ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ for the third time in one night.

 

“You’ll be the first to know,” Sam assured him before driving off.

 

Rodney watched her car disappear down the street. He felt surprisingly okay with his decision to leave behind science in favour of the three people in the world he loved the most.

 

More than a year later, when Rodney remembered this incident, he felt like the world’s biggest idiot.

 

Air Force – Sam – secret mission far from home – John. Just a simple case of connect-the-dots.


End file.
